Review of Lauren Oliver’s Delirium: What Is the Cost of Living Your Own Life?

When do you trust the wisdom of those you love, and when do you need to experience and decide for yourself?  This is the dilemma that Lena Haloway faces in Lauren Oliver’s novel, Delirium.  

In dystopian Maine, love is a disease and each member of the community is “cured” by having their emotions surgically removed when they turn 18.   With only three months left before her procedure, Lena finds herself infected and begins to question the lessons she has been taught since childhood.  Oliver masterfully addresses the adherence and guilt, the oscillation of advancing and retreating, and finally the commitment to action that occurs when deciding between what one feels and what one is taught to feel.

Top Ten Tuesday - Beach Reads

It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday! Up this week: top 10 beach reads

(original feature courtesy of The Broke and the Bookish)!

1. A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engel

Swim with the dolphins and fall asleep to the waves along with 16-year old Vicky Austin who is spending the summer at her dying grandfather’s house on an island off the coast of New England.  Don’t judge this book by the Disney Channel Original Movie; this novel claims my highest number of re-reads and never fails to transport me to the smell of salt air and barbeques on the beach.